Follow the person missions are a lot more bearable now since you can use Eagle Vision and tag your targets, this way you don't even need to keep them in line of sight anymore, since you see them through walls. You only focus on keeping in range.

Anyone have word on whether the PC version is playable? I had heard it was buggy and I should wait.

I'm about 35-hours into the PC version of Black Flag, using my wired 360 controller, and it's great! Not a single crash, the rare load times are barely 2-3 seconds, and it's looks wonderful.

That said, the release version was *very* poorly optimized. Without V-Sync enabled, if suffers from horrific screen-tearing. The game also suffers the ironic problem of completely ignoring the Triple Buffering setting in your video card's driver settings, so activating V-Sync causes the framerate to bounce wildly from 60 to 30 to 20, with no increments in between. Many people have been using D3DOverrider to force Triple Buffering on and completely solve the problem.

For the rest of that game session, I can have V-Sync enabled, with no screen tearing and no apparent frame rate drops. Why does this work? I have no idea, but pending an official fix from Ubisoft, I definitely recommend it!

A few other minor graphical glitches have been patched out this week. Previously, using Eagle Vision would automatically reset the "God Rays" setting to 'Low,' even if your system could handle higher. That was fixed earlier this week. There's also some debate over whether the latest nVidia beta drivers are better than the most recent release set. Some people claim there's a 5-10 fps drop in performance on single card systems, but I'm using them and the game is running perfectly.

I have a GeForce GTX 780. I do not know how ATI cards fare with Black Flag.

Finally, Ubisoft has said they'll be adding PhysX support in an upcoming patch, which they say will greatly improve both the appearance and performance of things like ship combat and the volumetric fog. There is no time frame on when this patch might be released -- I fully expect to have finished before it does.

Anyone have word on whether the PC version is playable? I had heard it was buggy and I should wait.

I'm about 35-hours into the PC version of Black Flag, using my wired 360 controller, and it's great! Not a single crash, the rare load times are barely 2-3 seconds, and it's looks wonderful.

That said, the release version was *very* poorly optimized. Without V-Sync enabled, if suffers from horrific screen-tearing. The game also suffers the ironic problem of completely ignoring the Triple Buffering setting in your video card's driver settings, so activating V-Sync causes the framerate to bounce wildly from 60 to 30 to 20, with no increments in between. Many people have been using D3DOverrider to force Triple Buffering on and completely solve the problem.

For the rest of that game session, I can have V-Sync enabled, with no screen tearing and no apparent frame rate drops. Why does this work? I have no idea, but pending an official fix from Ubisoft, I definitely recommend it!

A few other minor graphical glitches have been patched out this week. Previously, using Eagle Vision would automatically reset the "God Rays" setting to 'Low,' even if your system could handle higher. That was fixed earlier this week. There's also some debate over whether the latest nVidia beta drivers are better than the most recent release set. Some people claim there's a 5-10 fps drop in performance on single card systems, but I'm using them and the game is running perfectly.

I have a GeForce GTX 780. I do not know how ATI cards fare with Black Flag.

Finally, Ubisoft has said they'll be adding PhysX support in an upcoming patch, which they say will greatly improve both the appearance and performance of things like ship combat and the volumetric fog. There is no time frame on when this patch might be released -- I fully expect to have finished before it does.

-Autistic Angel

pretty much spot on. had an issue with the very first time you take control of a ship but after that it has been smooth sailing.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

OK, I'm calling bullshit on La Negra. can only be really damaged from behind and has the ability to magically speed forward quickly when you get the back of the ship in range plus mortars than can change direction in mid-air. They fired the mortars to the left, I was able to cut to her right and still got hit by them, and no, it was not the ships 'mortar spray' attack either.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

HA! just had the rising ship bug. took a rowboat back to the ship, and when it loaded I was floating in the water. Puzzled, I swam around a bit until crew members started floating up. I backed off a bit, and eventually saw the masts start to rise up out of the deep. too bad uPlay's Twitch integration is still screwing up on my PC, it only caught 7 seconds of it even though the recorder timer showed it running for 20 seconds.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

Is has some text and videos of all the different versions - showing the same thing. I hate it when they show a sea battle from the PS4, but walking in town from the 360, and a fight from the Wii U. These videos seem to be done right - ie the same thing on different systems.

wait, when did harpooning unlock? I was waiting for a story mission that unlocked it, but sailing past a harpooning site tonight it gave me the option to do it. I thought they were locked like the diving bell missions until you passed a certain point.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

wait, when did harpooning unlock? I was waiting for a story mission that unlocked it, but sailing past a harpooning site tonight it gave me the option to do it. I thought they were locked like the diving bell missions until you passed a certain point.

Nope, harpooning doesn't seem to be tied into the story at all, so you can do that at any time.

wait, when did harpooning unlock? I was waiting for a story mission that unlocked it, but sailing past a harpooning site tonight it gave me the option to do it. I thought they were locked like the diving bell missions until you passed a certain point.

Nope, harpooning doesn't seem to be tied into the story at all, so you can do that at any time.

well, on the plus side by the time I realized it I had everything upgraded so getting what I needed was a breeze.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

I think I'm going to end up 100% with this game. I'm already getting close, despite still being at roughly 60-65% of the story. It's a great game, but as usual Ubisoft has made their usual blunder: They don't know when to cut content. There's simply too much stuff here, and there's a few concepts that should have been left on the cutting floor.

I'm of course talking about the underwater sections. They should have given them one quick trip through QA before realizing that they were impossible to salvage as designed. It doesn't matter what you do in these sections as the sharks will always see you (and patrol so quickly that trying to be clever around their patrol paths is futile), and you can't plan out your movement since you've got a very limited air supply. Threats are hard, if not impossible, to see until it's too late, and the controls are unresponsive and clunky. Dying only moves you back to the diving bell without losing any progress, so the least painful way to deal with these sections is simply to brute force them, dying repeatedly until you're done. I was very glad to be done with the last one of these today.

Ship stealth is also something that should have been discarded. Not only is the concept completely ludicrous the way they went about it here, but the enemy ships turn so quickly that you can get caught up in a suddenly appearing vision cone without having the slightest chance to dodge it. You've got little vision yourself, so planning a course by using the minimap is pointless most of the time.

Picking up shanties is almost as infuriating as it was in the last game. It was bad enough that somebody decided these were a good idea back in AC3. It's worse that somebody decided they were a good enough idea to bring along to the sequel. Hunting down these sheets is never fun. Ever! Not once in the entire game. They made them a little more forgiving this time (and you can cheat by looking at where the shanty is and just standing there until it respawns), but that's like thanking them for using lube when they command you to drop your pants and bend over.

It's obvious that the in-game economy has been adjusted because of microtransactions. The grind in order to fully upgrade the Jackdaw is ridiculous. There's no reason why it has to be like this except microtransactions.

At least they managed to make some of the least fun segments from previous games more interesting this time. Due to the improved stealth, tailing someone can actually feel pretty rewarding now (though some of the optional objectives they give you during these parts can be bizarre once in a while), and even eavesdropping is somewhat workable this time around. This is also the first game in the series since AC1 to actually make you feel like an assassin, which is kind of ironic considering you're not an assassin.

Side objectives are also mostly fun and rewarding this time, unlike the utterly broken ones from AC3. The difference is night and day. It's clear that Ubisoft took the criticism to heart in this area.

It's obvious that the in-game economy has been adjusted because of microtransactions. The grind in order to fully upgrade the Jackdaw is ridiculous. There's no reason why it has to be like this except microtransactions.

it never felt like a grind to me, but then again I loved attacking ships and pillaging them so it always seemed like I had a full storage area of resources.. I did find it curious that you could sell metal, wood and cloth but not buy them like you could the hunting items. I also had fun looking for the plans, although I think they may have made treasure hunting a bit too easy by giving you the exact co-ordinates for whatever area the treasure was in. Perhaps they could have used riddles instead.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

It's obvious that the in-game economy has been adjusted because of microtransactions. The grind in order to fully upgrade the Jackdaw is ridiculous. There's no reason why it has to be like this except microtransactions.

it never felt like a grind to me

Once you realize that even taking down 6 man-of-wars carrying mostly metal doesn't get you enough metal to purchase even a single upgrade, it really, really turns into a grind. You have to board probably close to 150 ships to upgrade the Jackdaw fully, and that's if you pick and choose your targets according to their cargo manifests.

It's obvious that the in-game economy has been adjusted because of microtransactions. The grind in order to fully upgrade the Jackdaw is ridiculous. There's no reason why it has to be like this except microtransactions.

it never felt like a grind to me

Once you realize that even taking down 6 man-of-wars carrying mostly metal doesn't get you enough metal to purchase even a single upgrade, it really, really turns into a grind. You have to board probably close to 150 ships to upgrade the Jackdaw fully, and that's if you pick and choose your targets according to their cargo manifests.

I guess I just haven't noticed any grind while defeating near 500 ships so far. Granted, according to the game I only sunk 407 of those, the rest got left drifting. I also barely ever used the scope to check out what they were carrying, maybe not putting much thought into it helped make it more fun. More often than not it would only be used after I hit an enemy and went 'OMG, look at that health bar' to see how much of a clusterfuck I had just jumped into

heck, at this point in the game I don't have to worry about resources or reales but I'm still pirating away. I hope they got enough good feedback on that survey they sent out to decide to make a stand alone pirate game.

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Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

It's obvious that the in-game economy has been adjusted because of microtransactions. The grind in order to fully upgrade the Jackdaw is ridiculous. There's no reason why it has to be like this except microtransactions.

it never felt like a grind to me

Once you realize that even taking down 6 man-of-wars carrying mostly metal doesn't get you enough metal to purchase even a single upgrade, it really, really turns into a grind. You have to board probably close to 150 ships to upgrade the Jackdaw fully, and that's if you pick and choose your targets according to their cargo manifests.

I guess I just haven't noticed any grind while defeating near 500 ships so far. Granted, according to the game I only sunk 407 of those, the rest got left drifting. I also barely ever used the scope to check out what they were carrying, maybe not putting much thought into it helped make it more fun. More often than not it would only be used after I hit an enemy and went 'OMG, look at that health bar' to see how much of a clusterfuck I had just jumped into

heck, at this point in the game I don't have to worry about resources or reales but I'm still pirating away. I hope they got enough good feedback on that survey they sent out to decide to make a stand alone pirate game.

Yeah it's a bit of a grind, but if it was easy to unlock everything then what would be the point? Earlier in this same thread people were complaining that it is too easy to get the best weapons early in the game. So there has to be some difficulty to upgrading the ships power. To me they got it just right. I'm 78% done and I only have one thing left to upgrade on the ship, seems right to me.

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" And they are a strong and frightening force, impervious to, and immunized against, the feeble lance of mere reason." Isaac Asimov

It's obvious that the in-game economy has been adjusted because of microtransactions. The grind in order to fully upgrade the Jackdaw is ridiculous. There's no reason why it has to be like this except microtransactions.

it never felt like a grind to me

Once you realize that even taking down 6 man-of-wars carrying mostly metal doesn't get you enough metal to purchase even a single upgrade, it really, really turns into a grind. You have to board probably close to 150 ships to upgrade the Jackdaw fully, and that's if you pick and choose your targets according to their cargo manifests.

I guess I just haven't noticed any grind while defeating near 500 ships so far. Granted, according to the game I only sunk 407 of those, the rest got left drifting. I also barely ever used the scope to check out what they were carrying, maybe not putting much thought into it helped make it more fun. More often than not it would only be used after I hit an enemy and went 'OMG, look at that health bar' to see how much of a clusterfuck I had just jumped into

heck, at this point in the game I don't have to worry about resources or reales but I'm still pirating away. I hope they got enough good feedback on that survey they sent out to decide to make a stand alone pirate game.

Yeah it's a bit of a grind, but if it was easy to unlock everything then what would be the point? Earlier in this same thread people were complaining that it is too easy to get the best weapons early in the game. So there has to be some difficulty to upgrading the ships power. To me they got it just right. I'm 78% done and I only have one thing left to upgrade on the ship, seems right to me.

I would argue that "easy" has nothing to do with this. It's an argument that often pops up in relation to grinds in various games. The defense is that the grind keeps the game from "becoming too easy". Achieving full upgrades in AC (and achieving your objectives in most other games where this argument is used) is very, very easy. It's also tedious and repetitive. Unless you're a complete nutcase like CeeKay who finds blowing up hundreds of ships for no reason to be fun. An accomplishment that is easy, tedious and repetitive is the very definition of grind.